About two weeks ago, we found out that our outreach costs will be about 4000 dollars. And so, my goal became to raise 4000 dollars. I was confronted with a big gap in my faith: the practical reliance on God for my worldly needs. Since I got here, I have heard dozens of stories about God providing students with thousands of dollars in the most outrageous ways, but I never really pictured myself in their shoes. Those stories were great, but they weren't for me. So I decided to start small.
For those of you who don't know this, I get fairly attached to my pens. At the start of my DTS I had this really great steadler ink pen that I loved. However, three weeks in, I lost that pen. So, I asked God to give me a new one. This was actually pretty meaningful because I really feel that God has given me a gift for writing since I got here... I have been writing texts and songs and a lot of poetry.
A few days after I made my request, I had the opportunity to buy a great pen. I was almost at the cash when I decided that buying it wasn't what I was meant to do. I put the pen back and chose to wait on God, even if it meant that I would have to keep taking my notes with a regular ball point pen. Later that day, someone handed me $500 towards my outreach fees.
Two days passed and I still had not recieved my pen. I was telling my friend Sez about it when she offered me a pen that she had upstairs. Sez said "Natalie, I have a thousanzend pens upstairs. You can just have one." And I told her no, that God will give me one so she didn't need to. At this point, I'm sure that people thought I was being a little bit ridiculous, but I really felt like this is what I was meant to do. So, later on that day, someone handed me a hugely generous $1000 dollars for outreach to cambodia. This was the same person who had donated the first time. (If you read this... Thank you. Your generosity blesses me more than you know!)
So miracles do happen. In just a matter of days, I have gone from needing $4000 to needing $2500 all because of one person's incredibly giving heart and because of my teeny step of faith. There will always be a faith gap: you just need to throw yourself into it, expecting the very best, and fearing nothing.
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